EA Access Will Add One Game, Two Trials This Month

Electronic Arts gave a status update on their premium Xbox One service EA Access today. The company plans to expand the benefits gamers receive in a few ways this month.

The Vault, the archive of full games included with the monthly membership, will grow by one game in the coming weeks. Need For Speed Rivals lets players become racers or the cops trying to take them down. The game is set in the open-world Redview County with over 100 miles of road to explore. By gaining experience in either path, players will unlock gadget upgrades, cars and events. Players can transition between single-player and multiplayer racing on the fly.

Rivals is the fifth game to be introduced to EA Access' Vault. The other four games are Battlefield 4, FIFA 14, Peggle 2, and Madden NFL 25. I'm glad that EA didn't swap one of those existing titles for Rivals. I hope that trend continues and they just keep making the Vault larger and larger. Over time that could make EA Access a really good value.

Exclusive trials of upcoming games are another big feature of EA Access. The first trial offered through the service was for Madden NFL 15. EA says that Xbox One owners spent over 245,000 hours in the game before it launched last week. Two more trials will be added to EA Access in September.

"EA Access trials for NHL 15 and FIFA 15 will be going live this month and we want to give you the details on what to expect," the company said on their official blog. "All EA Access members will get six hours with each game, and as always, you will be able to play each game five days before the release date."

The NHL 15 trial will be available starting on Thursday, September 4th. Players will be able to try every mode and feature in the game in advance of its official launch on the 9th.

EA Access gives players 10% of the digital purchase of FIFA 15 and NHL 15 upon release. In both cases, your Achievements and progress will carry over as well.

In addition to offering new perks, EA is expanding Access to new countries. The service launched in 12 countries in August. Later this month, the following countries will receive it: Brazil, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Chile, Colombia, Portugal, Turkey, South Africa, UAE, Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, and Greece.

EA Access is currently exclusive to the Xbox One. Sony says that they opted not to support the program on PS4.

“PlayStation Plus memberships are up more than 200% since the launch of PlayStation 4, which shows that gamers are looking for memberships that offer a multitude of services, across various devices, for one low price," Sony said last month. "We don’t think asking our fans to pay an additional $5 a month for this EA-specific program represents good value to the PlayStation gamer.”